Just following the release of Windows Media Player 10 featuring Janus DRM, Napster has begun making use of this feature by offering a beta version of its rental service known as Napster To Go. While Napster's existing subscription service allows an unlimited amount of music to be downloaded for a flat monthly fee, the music was locked to the consumer's PC. Napster To Go gives the capability of transferring music to Janus supporting portable Windows Media players.
Napster expects to offer added functionality and MP3 player compatibility later this autumn in its upcoming Napster client 3.0. Unfortunately, this new service comes at a higher premium currently priced at $ 14.95 per month, compared with its more limited $ 9.95 per month service. However, they have yet to finalise the Napster To Go pricing. Rental music will playback until the user's subscription has finished. GristyMcFisty used our news submit to let us know about the following news:
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This service leverages new Windows Media 10 technologies to enable Napster subscribers to download music to portable devices, a technology called Janus. Music remains protected, and if a user's subscription ends, the music won't play any more. It's tunes to rent. The final version of Napster To Go, with enhanced functionality and compatibility with a range of MP3 players, will be available in autumn as part of Napster client 3.0. Napster CEO Chris Gorog said: "We are putting our stake in the ground as evidence of our commitment to lead and not follow by introducing this highly-anticipated and game-changing capability in preview and look forward to offering music fans the enhanced final version in our updated client this fall." The capacity to carry subscribed music in this way is only available using a Windows Media Player 10 plug-in, and only currently works with the Samsung Portable Media Center or Creative Zen Portable Media Center. Napster 3.0, featuring Napster To Go, launches in autumn when more third-party devices are expected to support the technology. Renting, but not owning, music using the service currently costs .95, but final prices have not yet been declared. |
While it seems like Napster To Go is getting closer to resembling a peer-to-peer network than most of its competitors, there are several exceptions and drawbacks that will make many think twice of moving away from P2P:
- It is not free, which can make it tough to compete with 'free' P2P services.
- Music is Janus DRM protected. The majority of current portable players do not support this and I'm sure many users are not suddenly going to ditch their pricey MP3 player just to purchase another player that does.
- Music is encoded in WMA. Despite Microsoft's original claim that WMA is CD quality at 64kbps and MP3 quality at 48kbps, I still find the WMA artefacts annoying at 128kbps, but then again some others don't hear anything wrong.
- The company hosts the music and not the users, thus the library is limited to only what ever the Napster offers.
- If the user terminates their subscription, all rental music they have downloaded over the duration of the subscription suddenly turns to useless data
- Various others such as limited to Windows Media Player 10 only playback, no non-Windows support, no CD-burning allowed and so on.
Feel free to discuss and find out about Napster and other online music services on our Music Downloads, P2P & Legal Issues Forum.
Source: Macworld UK
